LAS VEGAS — Accidents in Mexico and Brazil left Williams with a repair bill stretching into multiple millions of dollars in order to be ready for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The team suffered five accidents across the two events, including a qualifying crash in Brazil that ruled Alex Albon out of the race.
Williams’ factory worked flatout in the two-week break between the race in Sao Paulo and this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix in order to salvage parts that were still serviceable and manufacture replacements for items that were beyond repair.
In an interview with ESPN in Las Vegas, team principal James Vowles gave a rough estimate of the cost of the repairs.
“You are into the millions — less than 10 but more than three,” he said. “It’s big numbers when you calculate where we are at the moment.
“The sustained damage we had across Mexico and Brazil, I hadn’t experienced anything like that in 25 years of working in the sport — to have five major accidents [in two races]. It’s hard to apportion fault or otherwise to it, that’s just motor racing, but five…
“That took out five front wings, five floors, five rear wings, three gearboxes, two engines, two chassis. An amount that you just can’t believe.”
Alex Albon crashed during practice in Mexico and had a collision with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda in the race. In Brazil, both cars crashed during a wet qualifying session, with damage to Albon’s car so extensive he couldn’t start the race while Franco Colapinto crashed again in the race.
Vowles said the team’s work since the Brazilian Grand Prix means it goes into the final three races of the season with two cars complete in the latest specification.
“To turn that around to have here in Las Vegas two cars completely updated on the right specification — albeit not with a huge amount of spares behind that — it’s not just a huge effort, it’s a gargantuan effort of the whole team pulling together.
“What I’m proud of is, in this moment when you really are down, you’re on your knees and kicked in the stomach, the team rose up stronger than it was before and wanted to come here and prove to the world that we are still here and fight for everything we can fight until the end of the championship. It was a proud moment to be leading the team in that moment.”
F1’s budget cap limits teams’ expenditure to $135 million for the 2024 season, meaning the costs of accident damage can cut into development budgets.
Vowles said Williams enters the final three races of the season with fewer spares than it would want, but has done so knowing manufacturing more would eat into development for 2025.
“I don’t have exactly what I’d like, because I’d like far more spares than I have,” he added. “But we have sufficient parts for the two cars here and there are a selection of spares around as well — it’s not that the two cars you see here is all the bits we have.
“We’re at a point now where, at the last three races of the year, if I produce, for example, five front wings, that’s 2025 I’m compromising as a result, so we have to balance between the two.
“If we have accidents like Brazil we are going to be in dire trouble, but hopefully that’s a one off.”
